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I almost put "Yesterday To Tomorrow" on here but thought I'd already gone a bit overboard with Audioslave material. Aside from Cornell on that track...man, Morello's guitar solo is cool on that one.
I love the Waterboys' '80s records and I've been looking for some reason to write about them for a while. They really don't get their due, imo. And you're right, I think there's interesting stuff to consider re: these two Irish bands and what directions they went in.
I've shit on the record in a few pieces but my issue's more with the overall premise, and all the covers + live stuff...and then it still being counted as a sorta-album. But most of the studio material is amazing—"Heartland," "Hawkmoon 269," and then "All I Want Is You" is one of their best songs imo. Also there's that outtake "A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel," which is one of my favorites out of the songs where U2 go full cartoon Americana.
Yeah I actually agree that it's another underrated/wrongfully maligned one. I think it's also a frustrating one because it's so easy to imagine what could've been if they had pushed further in some of the directions suggested on it. Oddly there are only 2-3 songs I'd point to as being part of the problem, but I remember it as an album with very strong opening and closing thirds and a gaping hole in the middle.
Yeah, originally I mentioned that in the piece—I used to drive up Giant's Despair every day for my summer job during college.
Also, incredibly, Tim and his friend (who did the album art) had a plan to make a Lord Of The Rings style map of Wilkes-Barre as Middle-Earth but didn't do it. The Sterling Hotel was going to be Mordor.
You can't go wrong with most of the songs on that album, including "Nylon Strung." "If Rah" and "Ova Nova" almost edged out "I Exhale" for me, but "I Exhale" blew my mind when it first came out and still does.
Damn, felt like someone was missing. Thanks for calling that out, we added Vega in.
I actually saw LCD Soundsystem play "Bye Bye Bayou" in tribute to Vega at Panorama back in July; it was pretty amazing.
Yeah, this has always been my feeling, and was more so the point I was trying to make in that last paragraph than to suggest the old icons were more inherently talented than the newer ones. I think you're right that it's just impossible to be omnipresent on the same level that some of those '60s artists were.
Agreed re: Push The Sky Away, but I'm a little biased because that's around the time I really got obsessed with his work. Would say that's essential alongside Tender Prey and Let Love In...those three were my way in, and I think they hold up as classics within his career.
1. "The Mercy Seat"
2. "More News From Nowhere"
3. "Jubilee Street"
4. "O Children"
5. "Do You Love Me?"
If the studio version of "Weeping Song" sounded like how they play it now, that'd be on the list.
Wow, when you restrict this to bands it is really difficult to come up with any ideas to add to your list. Closest I got was that any of Pulp's '90s classics would technically count, except I think that's sorta cheating, like with Tusk.
I meant the comparison more in the sense that the song has bits of the mood/pacing of some of those other songs but now that I think about it the new song I was referring to does sound a bit like if "Hot As Day" was on Shriek.
As a defender of Local Business, maybe this is why I still really like those songs. I can hear what you're saying about those sounding related to that album.
Whaaaat..."Lonely Boy" and "I Lost My Mind" (+@) are squarely in the "Perfect" column for me. Totally agree with yr "Perfect" column otherwise, though. Actually, I'd make "Come On, Siobhan" and "A Pair Of Brown Eyes" trade spots.
Those guys have since become friends of mine, so I'm a little biased—but it was one of my favorite LPs this year one way or the other. The climax in "Swam Out" is such a gorgeous conclusion to a record. I really hope they start getting some more (deserved) attention in the States.
"Pattern" was *very* close to making my top 10...that album in general stuck with me through most of the year and I wish they'd gotten more recognition.
Some honorable mentions:
Jim O'Rourke - "Half Life Crisis," "Last Year" (not on Spotify, unfortunately)
Everything Girl Band put out
A$AP Rocky - "Holy Ghost," "L$D," "Fine Whine"
Adele - "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)"
Blur - "Pyongyang," "Ong Ong"
Brandon Flowers - "I Still Want You," "Lonely Town"
Pretty much all the new archival material on Springsteen's River box set, which I'm not sure even counts
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Run Away With Me," "Emotion"
Destroyer - "Dream Lover"
Django Django - "Giant," "Shot Down"
EL VY - "I'm The Man To Be," "Happiness, Missouri"
Father John Misty - "The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment"
Florence + The Machine - "Ship To Wreck"
Fufanu - "Northern Gannet," "Blinking"
Gardens & Villa - "General Research"
Grimes - "Realiti" (demo), "Artangels"
Heather Woods Broderick - "Wyoming"
Hot Chip - "Need You Now"
Jamie xx - "Gosh," "The Rest Is Noise"
Kamasi Washington - "Change Of The Guard"
Kendrick - the songs others mentioned in their own lists, + "The Blacker The Berry"
Kurt Vile - "Wild Imagination"
Line & Circle - "Roman Ruins" (technically originally released in 2012, but my favorite off their debut this year//one of my favorites of the year)
Los Colognes - "Backseat Driver"
Lower Dens - "Sucker's Shangri La"
Mark Ronson - "Uptown Funk," "Daffodils"
My Morning Jacket - "Like A River," "Tropics (Erase Traces)"
Other Lives - "Pattern"
Outfit - "Swam Out"
PINS - "Curse These Dreams," "House Of Love"
Ryan Adams' cover of "Shake It Off"
Ryley Walker - "Summer Dress," "Love Can Be Cruel"
Pretty much everything on Shamir's record
Sharon Van Etten - "I Don't Want to Let You Down"
Slonk Donkerson - "Sonata," "Build Something, Break Even," "Destiny"
Susanne Sundfor - "Accelerate," "Fade Away"
The Tallest Man On Earth - "Sagres"
Tame Impala - "Cause I'm A Man" (since Tom called it)
Title Fight - "Chlorine"
Titus Andronicus - "Lonely Boy," "I Lost My Mind," "Dimed Out," "Fatal Flaw," "Mr. E. Mann," "Come On, Siobhan"
Torche - "Loose Men," "Restarter"
Viet Cong - "Death"
Wilco - "You Satellite"
